The Poetry Project is proud to offer The Brannan Prize, an annual $1,000 prize for emerging poets in honor of former Poetry Project intern and poet Lisa Brannan. In addition to the financial prize, the winning poet will have one poem published in the Poetry Project Newsletter. The generosity and dedication of our interns and volunteers — often emerging poets themselves — is invaluable to The Poetry Project, and we are so honored to offer this prize, which supports emerging poets, in the memory of our former intern, Lisa Brannan.

Lisa Brannan was a Poetry Project intern in New York City during the mid-1990’s. She was born in 1975, grew up in South Carolina, and moved to New York to study engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. While a student, Lisa began to develop an interest in the local literary and cultural scene of Lower Manhattan. Her interests shifted from science and engineering to creative writing. She joined The Poetry Project as an intern in 1995 and helped the Project with event promotion and archiving. Lisa developed her writing by immersing herself in the world of the subjects and themes that interested her. Her work explored the role and experience of marginalized women, sexual dynamics, drug addiction, and other difficult topics. Lisa passed away on June 4, 1997, at the age of 22 in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Submission Guidelines:

There is no fee for poets interested in submitting to the prize. Poets interested in having their work considered should observe the guidelines below:

• Submit three previously unpublished poems in a single .pdf, .doc, or .docx attachment, not to exceed 15 pages.
• Only one entry of three poems per poet.
• Personal identification should not appear in the submission document in any form. The judge for The Brannan Prize will review all submissions without any identifying information.
• Emerging, in this case, will not be defined by age but by publication record. The criteria for submission is that the poet may not have published a full-length book at the time the prize is given, although chapbook publication is fine.
• Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Submissions for the Brannan Prize are currently closed.

Read the work of previous winners below